Disney’s Hollywood vs. the real Tinseltown

Yesterland’s Werner Weiss leads an architectural tour of the Los Angeles landmarks that inspired the facades of Disney’s California Adventure theme park with a photo slide show of both the inspirations and imitations.

For the uninitiated, Yesterland is an online archive chronicling discontinued Disneyland rides as well as a repository of history about the Happiest Place on Earth and its less-famous next door neighbor.

Real-world L.A. locations on the virtual tour of the Anaheim theme park’s Hollywood Pictures Backlot include:
* Art Deco 1929 Bullocks Wilshire and 1930 Pantages Theater
* 1929 Churrigueresque Chapman Market
* Streamline Moderne 1937 ABC Radio and 1933 Owl Drug
* 1931 French Baroque Los Angeles Theater
* 1928 Italian Renaissance Beverly Wilshire Hotel
* 1931 Regency Deco Max Factor building

From the two-part report, it becomes clear that Weiss prefers the faux version of the “Hollywood that never was and always will be” at Disney’s Hollywood Studios in Orlando, Florida, to the stripped-down, cost-cutting version attempted at California Adventure in Anaheim.

Find the latest amusement and theme park news at the
Los Angeles Times Funland blog: www.latimes.com/funland

— Brady MacDonald, Los Angeles Times Staff Writer

[Photo: Disney]

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This entry was posted on Saturday, January 19, 2008 at 9:22 pm by Brady MacDonald and is filed under Disney's California Adventure, Disneyland, Family & Kids, Los Angeles, San Diego, Southern States, Theme Parks. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a comment, or trackback from your own site.